


The Great Angus Debacle

by stonestars



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Mystery, Surprise Party, as does upsy (regrettably), ish, lots of concern, lots of others make appearances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 15:15:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14621412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonestars/pseuds/stonestars
Summary: Angus wants to do something to repay Taako, Merle, and Magnus for everything they’d done for him. And what greater gift can Angus McDonald give than the gift of a mystery to solve?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [exceed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exceed/gifts), [Emily_the_Almighty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emily_the_Almighty/gifts).



> Gosh I finally got around to finishing this fic. I don't think I would've if it wasn't for two particular friends of mine who both happen to be friends of our good good magic boy. Which is why I've gifted/dedicated this fic to ink and emily!! 'cause the two of you are wonderful and I love y'all so much. I hope you enjoy our dear dear boy and his adventures!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taako underestimates how many people adore Angus. Magnus and Merle are largely unhelpful. Lucretia is.

It’s Angus’ 18th birthday, and everyone has decided to give him the best party of his life. 

-

It starts months in advance-- Taako calls Magnus, Merle, and Lup and tells them to get whoever they think might want to be a part of planning a party for Angus together. 

“This is very important, so actually listen to what I’m trying to say,” Taako says. “Don’t let our Boy Wonder in on all this,  _ capisce _ ? Can you idiots pull that off?”

“Of course we can!” Magnus exclaims, his voice full of fake offense. 

Merle laughs. “It’ll be just like old times, then.”

“Old times, sure,” Taako says, offhandedly, his mind already racing on to the next thing. “Just don’t let him find out.”

-

One Tuesday night while Angus is away at school, Taako finds himself standing in the middle of a cramped living-room, barely able to breathe. He looks around at the crowd that has developed, trying to make sense of what is going on.

Lup had brought Barry, Merle had brought the kids, and Magnus had brought about half of the people they had ever met. 

“Okay,” Taako says, pulling Merle, Magnus, and Lup into the kitchen. “What the  _ fuck?  _ No like seriously.  _ What the fuck?  _ We’re trying to keep this all a secret from  _ the world’s greatest detective  _ so why is there a literal fucking army in my house, guys?” 

Lup laughs. 

“No, no, seriously,” Taako says, giving her a glare. “ _ What the fuck?” _

“Don’t look at me, I only brought Barry!” Lup exclaims, gesturing towards her husband, who is standing in a corner with Kravitz and picking at a plate of cheese. 

“Well Mavis and Mookie are good friends with Angus,” Merle says, holding up his hands defensively. “And besides, they’re the closest to him in age! They can help, with planning.”

“That still doesn’t explain  _ this,”  _ Taako says, gesturing towards his living room with the wooden spoon he was using to stir a pot. Sauce flings across the room, splattering against the wall. Taako chooses to ignore it. 

Magnus has gone almost uncharacteristically quiet, a sheepish grin on his face as the others turned towards him, simultaneously realizing what happened. 

Taako points the spoon at him. “ _ Maggie,”  _ he says, his voice low, “explain. Now.”

Mangus rubs the back of his neck. “I told Carey,” he explains, “and Killian, because they’re always together and they love Angus. And then Avi heard us talking and he couldn’t not help out, and they were making sort of a big deal out of it so Lucretia noticed, and she had to come and help. And then I might’ve forgotten to exclude the fact that we were planning this from a letter I wrote to Jess, who then told Graham, and they wanted to help out too. And then on the way here Lucas just sort of showed up in Upsy and we couldn’t just tell them no—“

“That  _ hellevator _ is here too!?” Taako exclaims, putting his head in his hands. “Never mind, don’t answer that.” 

Lup is grinning with delight, and Merle breaks out laughing. “At least it’s still a manageable number of people,” Merle says. 

“—I also might’ve sent Capn’port a postcard to let him know,” Magnus finishes, barely holding back a grin. 

Lup practically starts cackling. Taako throws his hands up. 

-

Whatever the size of the crowd, it is actually rather easy to get them organized. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, nothing seems to unite this mismatched group more than the thought of their favorite boy detective having the best damn birthday bash of his life. 

Taako steps back into his living room, still clutching his spoon, which he holds above his head to get everyone to be quiet. 

“Okay,” he says, waving it through the air. “Listen up, Taako has an announcement.” 

It takes a minute for the room to get quiet. Lucas is busy talking to Mavis— luckily there is no sign of Upsy inside of Taako’s home. He might’ve lost it if there had been. Avi is showing Mookie party tricks, the young dwarf stops mid-clap when Taako speaks. Kravitz and Barry watch from the corner. Lucretia is sitting in an armchair with a large glass of wine. Graham is sitting nearby, watching as Jess shows Killian and Carey her axe, which disappears from her hands as Taako gets their attention. 

“As  _ all  _ of you now know, we’re throwing a surprise party for our boy,” Taako says. He brandishes his spoon at each of them. “That means nothing about this party gets mentioned outside of this house, and I mean  _ not a peep,  _ you got me?”

After receiving a nod from every member of the room, Taako instructs them to take a seat. “And hold on to your asses, because this is going to be the best damn party the world has ever seen,” he says, manifesting a large pad of paper from whatever pocket dimension he had been keeping it in. 

-

The plan comes together fairly easily. Taako gives instructions. Magnus gives suggestions— most of which are ignored. Merle gives bad jokes— all of which are ignored. Lucretia writes everything down. 

They decide that they’ll throw the party at Taako and Kravitz’s house, because it has a large yard that is big enough for the endeavor they are taking on. Taako and Lup are in charge of the food and the cake. “ _ Obviously,” _ Taako drawls. He is also in charge of choosing the music, there’s no way he’s trusting the rest of them with that. 

Carey and Killian are in charge of the decorations, and Taako tells Graham, Mavis, and Mookie to “uh, listen to them and follow their instructions.” Thus, the five of them are dubbed the decorations crew.

Avi is to handle drinks, for everyone except the kids. Lucas’s job is to make sure Angus is too swamped with work at the school to visit, because Magnus is going to construct a gazebo in Taako’s backyard for this event to partially take place in. Jess agrees to help him with the construction. Merle’s job is to oversee everyone else, and make sure that everything is be running on time and smoothly. Lucretia proclaims that she will help him by keeping everything organized and making sure that he remembers what roles people were supposed to have in the first place. 

As they finish deciding the roles, Taako gestures to Kravitz and Barry. “And you two are the Ango patrol,” he says. The two of them look at each other and then back at Taako. 

“Excuse me, the what?” Barry asks. 

“I didn’t stutter, Barold,” Taako says, “the Ango patrol. Your job is to make sure that Angus doesn’t suspect anything.” 

“And how are we supposed to do that?” Barry asks. Kravitz puts a hand on his shoulder as if to say  _ don’t bother fighting him on this, you won’t win.  _

“I dunno,” Taako says, turning back to the kitchen. “Figure it out, you’re a smart guy.”

-

After dinner, they spend a while deciding how to get Angus there. Inviting him, Lup points out, defeats the purpose of a surprise party. Trying to create a mystery for him to solve that lead him there won’t be effective— they’d just embarrass themselves with how easily he solves it. Lucas suggests he take Angus in Upsy and tell him they are going on an errand for the school. Taako shoots that plan down immediately— he isn’t going to willingly expose  _ his  _ boy to that. 

Eventually, Lucretia suggests that Taako, Magnus, and Merle go to get him. “For old times sake,” she says, sitting back in her chair and taking a sip of her wine. “Besides, it’s not out of character for you guys to drag him off.”

“And he’d probably knowingly follow you into the depths of hell,” Lup adds. 

Taako ignores her. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus remains the world’s greatest detective. He consults Upsy. He formulates a plan.

Angus stares at his planner, at the date circled with a magnifying glass. “My birthday,” he writes in neat letters next to it, staring down at the blank square.

Just as he begins to close the planner, his stone of farspeech beeps to life.

It’s Taako. 

“Hello, sir,” Angus says, surprised. It’s rather rare for Taako to call him like this.

“Hey, Agnes,” Taako says. “Listen, I’ve been talking to Magnus and Merle--”

“Oh,” Angus interrupts, “how are the two of them? I rarely hear from any of you, actually. How are  _ you _ , sir?”

Angus can practically see Taako waving his hand to dismiss him. “Yeah, yeah, we’re good,” he says. “Listen, your birthday is coming up, right kiddo?”

He’s so surprised that Taako remembers that Angus practically falls out of his chair. “Y-Yes,” he says, catching himself. 

“Don’t make any plans that day, you got me? The three of us are coming down to see you.” 

Angus can’t believe it. He’s always asked Taako to put together a dinner for his birthday, but this year he hasn’t gotten around to it yet. It’s still over a month away, and he wasn’t planning on making a big deal of it. “O-okay, sir,” he says, writing at the bottom of the square “T, M, & M coming to visit!” He grins. It’s been a long time since the four of them have done something together.

“Oh, and we already know what we’re gonna do, so don’t bother trying to figure out things to do,” Taako continues. Angus hears something in the background, and then he hears a muffled reply from Taako, who has put his hand over the stone of farspeech so that Angus can’t hear him. He just barely makes out Taako saying “yeah, Lulu, I got it, don’t even worry about it.”

Angus waits a moment before saying “sir?”

He gets Taako’s attention again. “Sorry, Ango. I’ve got to go, see you soon kiddo.”

“O-of course, see you soon sir,” Angus replies as the stone of farspeech clicks off. 

-

It doesn’t take long for Angus to realize that there’s something more in the works.

It starts off simple, with Lucas giving him just a little more to do than normal. He starts to give Angus more to do on the weekends, when he’d usually have some free time. He seems to take special care to give Angus just enough jobs to ensure that he’s unable to leave Neverwinter and get back in time for his next assignment.

That in itself wouldn’t be weird if Angus didn’t keep catching glimpses of Kravitz and Barry following him.

Barry is almost painfully obvious. One day, as Angus heads to the station to pick up an important book delivery for Lucas, he spots Barry sitting at a cafe nearby. At first, he doesn’t think anything of it, but rather quickly he realizes that Barry is keeping an eye on him, because he keeps peeking over the edge of his newspaper and then ducking behind it when Angus looks his way. And as Angus begins to walk, he sees Barry get up to follow him in some of the windows of the shops. When he turns around, he sees Barry hurry to hide behind a trash can or a lamp post or a member of the crowds. He plays it off as though he doesn’t notice, continuing about his business at a slightly more hurried pace.

Kravitz is a little more discrete, but Angus  _ is _ the world’s greatest detective. He notices the tiny rifts that seem to open up in the air around him whenever he gets too close to the station, and all the time when Barry isn’t watching him. These are easier to ignore, but it’s hard for Angus not to laugh when he catches a glimpse of Kravitz peering through a small rift with an uncomfortable expression on his face. Taako  _ definitely  _ roped him into this one.

-

He figures out how to lose Barry and Kravitz a short while after he sees them. They only follow him to the doors of the school, and then wait until he leaves again to follow him. They don’t monitor him while he’s on school grounds. This realization allows him a little more freedom, and a chance to confirm his suspicions about what is going on.

It’s easy--he just has to pay a visit to a particularly enthusiastic elevator.

Angus sneaks into Lucas’ office one day while he’s in a meeting, and as he closes the door behind him he hears Upsy begin to animate.

“Hello, kid!” Upsy exclaims, blinking his large eyes at Angus. “Do you need to get to another floor than the one you’re on now?”

Angus can’t help but be a little put-off by the elevator.  _ Taako must be rubbing off on me _ , he thinks, crossing the room to stand in front of Upsy.

“I need your help,” he says, doing his best to meet Upsy’s mechanical eyes.

Upsy looks a little confused, and Angus hears machinery whirring. The elevator doors part nonetheless, and Upsy says “get in my tum-tum, you goose.”

“No thank you,” Angus says, closing his eyes to get the image of goo hanging from the doors in long, stringy strands out of his head. “Has Lucas been going out to Taako’s house a lot, Upsy?”

“Why, of course,” Upsy says. Angus can see his tongue moving. “Lucas has been riding in my belly all the way to Taako’s house almost every weekend to help plan a party for y--” his doors slide shut, his nose blinking red. “You’re not supposed to know that,” he says offhandedly. His doors slide back open, and once again the stringy saliva-like substance spreads between them. “I don’t like it out there,” he says, “I’m not allowed inside.”

_ For good reason,  _ Angus thinks. Taako has definitely rubbed off on him. “Thank you,” he says, his hunch that they were planning a surprise party for him confirmed.

As he leaves Lucas’ office, Angus begins to formulate a surprise of his own.

All he has to do is figure out how to sneak outside of school grounds without Kravitz or Barry noticing.

-

When Angus McDonald shows up at the office of Lord Artemis Sterling, he is let in without question. 

He’s helped Lord Sterling with a few mysteries during his time at Neverwinter, and even before that. Besides, no one questions the world’s greatest detective when he’s in the middle of something.

But this time he isn’t solving a mystery. He’s creating one.

He wants to do something to repay Taako, Merle, and Magnus for everything they’d done for him, as well as to thank them in advance for the party they are throwing him. And what greater gift can Angus McDonald give than the gift of a mystery to solve?

Artemis Sterling looks up from his desk when Angus walks in, setting his pen aside and standing to greet Angus. “What can I do for you?” he asks, shaking Angus’s hand. 

Angus smiles. “Actually,” he says, “I need a favor.”

-

“A mystery?” Sterling asks, taking a sip of his tea. 

“A mystery,” Angus confirms. “I’m setting one up for Taako, Magnus, and Merle.”

“Well,” Artemis Sterling says, rubbing the back of his head thoughtfully. “You’ve certainly helped me out on many occasions, and I don’t see any harm in it… of course I’ll help out, Angus, though I’m not really sure how I can.”

“Oh, it’ll be rather simple,” Angus says, grinning. “All you have to do is point them in the right direction.”

“The right direction?” Sterling parrots.

Angus nods, handing him a map with a large red circle on it. He points to the circle. “This is an abandoned warehouse in the Blue Lake district,” Angus says, sitting back in his chair. “All I need you to do is to tell them that I’ve been helping you investigate an undercover crime ring in the city, and that I’ve tracked their base of operations to this warehouse.” He takes a sip of his own tea, pleased with himself. “Just to point them towards the next clue.”

Artemis examines the map. “An underground crime ring, huh?” he says to himself. “Very well, Angus. I’ll point them in the right direction.”

-

While it is rather easy for Angus to get access to the abandoned warehouse and Fantasy Costco location that he wants to use for his mystery, getting permission to use his final location is a little harder.

Angus thinks long and hard about what place he wants to use for the final location of his mystery. He considers the station, because it seems the easiest, but he doesn’t want to let on that he knows about the party. The school is the starting point, so it can’t work. 

The idea to use the Chaos Stadium hits him one day while he’s setting up the staging of the Fantasy Costco. When he casts mage hand to adjust one of the large tarps that are covering the windows around the abandoned store, the slightly shimmering blue mage hand reminds him of the time he used the spell in the stadium. Taako’s shouts of “that’s my boy!” echo through his mind as he smiles. There’s no better location; after all, it  _ was _ his birthday the last time he’d been there with them as well. It had been one of the best birthdays of his life.

The idea is one thing, but securing use of the stadium for a day requires a little more finesse and, regrettably, a lot more deceit. Luckily, Merle gave Angus Taako’s plastic sheriff's badge back as a gift when Angus had entered the academy, and Angus is easily able to use the badge and a little bit of name-dropping (“ _ I’m sorry to bother you, my name is Angus McDonald, the world’s greatest detective, and I’m here on business that I’m conducting with the help of Lord Artemis Sterling”)  _ to secure the location _ ,  _ Telling the manager of the stadium that he is on business with Lord Artemis Sterling isn’t  _ technically  _ a lie, but Angus still feels a little bad for it.

Still, he manages to secure use of the ring and enlist the help of one of the security workers at the stadium to set up Taako, Magnus, and Merle’s final encounter of their mystery with little difficulty.

_ - _

Finally, on the morning of his birthday, he’s able to set his plan into action. He opens his planner on his desk-- the date now has “Meeting with Lord Artemis Sterling” crossed out above the reminder of Taako, Magnus, and Merle’s visit-- and sets about destroying all semblance of organization that his room had.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taako is an angry mom. Merle has connections. Magnus keeps them on track. Artemis Sterling is surprisingly convincing.

It’s the morning of Angus’ 18th birthday, and Taako, Merle, Magnus, and Lup are standing on the platform of the train station as the train pulls up. 

Back at Taako’s house, preparations are in full swing, and Taako, Merle, and Magnus are about to set off to retrieve Angus from his school. 

As Taako goes to get on the train, he turns back to Lup. “Those appetizers have to come out of the oven when you get back,” he says, “and you can’t forget to make—“

“I  _ know,  _ Taako,” Lup interrupts, shoving him in the direction of the train. “This isn’t the first time I’ve done something like this. Go get Angus so that the days you spent in the kitchen don’t go to waste. We’ll be fine here.”

Magnus pops his head out of the door of the train, gesturing for Taako to hurry up. Taako sighs, stepping into the train and turning back to face Lup. “And remember to put the macarons on the cake when we call you to say we’re on the way back, or you won’t finish in time.”

“But not before so the icing doesn’t make them soggy,” Lup responds, waving a hand goodbye. “I’ve got it, Taako, I really do.”

Taako sighs. “I know,” he says as the door slide shut between them. He knows, of course, that Lup is able to handle cooking for something like this. She’s done it before. But he wants Angus’ party to be perfect, and it’s making him a little controlling when it comes to the preparations. 

The train isn’t crowded. The three of them find a row of seats-- Taako takes the isle, Merle the middle, and Magnus the window. Taako turns to his friends. “Okay, remember--” he begins

“We aren’t telling Angus where we’re going,” Merle interrupts, his voice just a little teasing. 

“And when we get to the station on this end I’m going to blindfold him,” Magnus says, raising a scarf and snapping the fabric a few times. 

Taako sighs. “Yes,” he says. 

Magnus leans over to Merle and whispers loudly “someone’s obsessed with making this perfect.”

Taako shoots him a glare, but doesn’t object. It’s true, after all. Instead, he sits back in ihs seat and pulls the brim of his hat down over his eyes. “Wake me when we get there,” he says.

-

Taako wakes up to Magnus poking him in the nose. He jumps, his hat tumbling to the floor in the isle. Merle picks it up as Taako glares at Magnus. “I said wake me up, not piss me off, Mags,” he says, standing up and taking his hat from Merle. 

Magnus grins. “We’re here,” he says, pointing out the window as the platform comes into view. 

They meet Lucas at the station. He’s on his way out to Taako’s house— catching an earlier train so there’s no chance of them running into him with Angus. 

“He’s waiting in his dorm for you guys to arrive,” Lucas says, waving over his shoulder as they part. 

-

They arrive at the dorms with little issue. They’ve visited before, and they know where Angus’ room is. 

The door is unlocked, and Magnus rushes into the room when Taako and Merle are still halfway down the hallway. He calls out “Ango!” as he bursts into the room, but quickly pokes his head back out the door, a worried expression on his face. “Guys,” he says, his voice urgent. “Hurry.”

Taako doesn’t know why, but he breaks into a run, Merle hurrying along behind him. They haven’t heard Magnus speak so urgently in a long while. 

They get to the doorway of Angus’ room and Taako freezes. 

The room is a disaster. 

There are clothes strewn everywhere, and it seems like every drawer and cabinet in the room is open. Angus’ desk is a mess, with all the drawers emptied on top of it. Everywhere Taako looks, things are out of place. He’s seen Angus’ room before-- it’s always tidy, always organized. 

“What the hell happened here?” Merle asks, looking around at the disaster.

“It looks like someone--Angus--put up one hell of a fight against someone else,” Magnus says, beginning to move around the room. He bends down next to a capsized lamp, picking up Angus’ wand from the ground and holding it out to Taako and Merle. “I don’t think… I don’t think Angus won.”

Taako feels like he can’t breathe. He crosses the room, taking the wand from Magnus and turning it over in his hands. “We have to find him,” he says, “we have to bring him home.”

“Agreed,” Merle says. Magnus nods. 

There’s an awkward silence as they all stare at each other. No one is particularly sure what to do.

“I guess we should do what Angus would do in this situation,” Magnus says, “which is to look for clues.”

Merle pulls out his stone of farspeech. “I’ll call Lup and let her know what’s happened,” he says, his face grim. 

Taako is frozen in place, thinking about Angus and if he’s okay and how he never lets the kid know how much he appreciates him enough.

“Taako?” Magnus prompts, gesturing for Taako to start looking around the room. Taako jumps, pulling the brim of his hat down so that Magnus can’t see the tears forming in his eyes. 

“Ri-Right,” Taako says, moving over to Angus’ desk. “Let’s do what our boy detective would do.”

Angus’ planner is open on the desk, only slightly obscured by the variety of pens that have been dumped on top of it. The date is circled with a little magnifying glass, with “My birthday!” next to it in Angus’ neat handwriting. One appointment reads “Meeting with Lord Artemis Sterling,” but it’s crossed out and below it is written “T, M, & M coming to visit!” in large letters. 

He holds up the planner. “This might be a good place to start,” he says, showing it to Magnus.

“Yeah, it would, except there’s no way we’d be able to get into Lord Artemis Sterling’s office on such short notice.”

Taako opens his mouth to remind Magnus that they’re heroes, but Merle beats him to it.

“Lord Artemis Sterling?” Merle interrupts as he comes back into the room and pocketing his stone of farspeech. He raises an eyebrow. “I mean, I could get us into his offices but I’m not sure how much help he’d be.”

Taako gets a little defensive. “Well, I don’t see any other clues, do  _ you _ , Mr. Critical?”

“I’m just saying--” Merle begins.

“No, Taako’s right,” Magnus interrupts, his gaze lingering on the excited lettering announcing their planned visit. “It’s a good place to start.”

-

Taako is about to march straight into Lord Artemis Sterling’s office, Magnus and Merle only seconds behind him, when his secretary stops them.

“Excuse me, you can’t go in there,” the secretary says. 

Taako spins on his heel, fueled by anger at whoever has kidnapped Angus and protective instinct. He’s almost certain the other two are going to tease him about how worked up this is making him later, but he can’t bring himself to care at the moment. 

“Excuse  _ me,”  _ Taako says, leaning over the desk. “I’m Taako, you know,  _ Taako.  _ I need to get into that office, I have important business--”

The secretary does not look impressed. “No meetings without an appointment,” she interrupts, going back to writing something in a planner.

“Let me handle this,” Merle says, giving Taako’s hip a small push to get him out of the way. He stands on his tiptoes, clearing his throat at the secretary. “My name is Merle Highchurch,” he says, “I need to speak to Sterling right away.”

The secretary puts her pen down, looking Merle over. “Oh, of course,” she says after a moment, dipping her head as she acknowledges who Merle is. “Excuse my rudeness, Earl Highchurch. Lord Sterling is in his office, just, right this way.”

Taako grumbles something under his breath about disrespect, and Magnus puts a hand on his shoulder to keep him from blowing something up. 

She leads them down a hallway, opening a door and gesturing for them to enter. “Earl Highchurch and company,” she announces, bowing to Sterling before disappearing back down the hallway.

On any other day, Taako would’ve made an issue about being announced as Merle’s company, but today it seems insignificant. 

Lord Artemis Sterling looks up from his desk as they enter, surprise crossing his features as he sees them. “Magnus, Taako, Merle, what are the three of you doing here?” he asks, standing and coming to stand in front of them. He looks a little nervous, but they have no way of knowing why.

“Have you seen the boy detective today?” Taako asks, ignoring pleasantries. 

“Angus?” Sterling asks, “No, I haven’t seen him today. Why?”

Magnus holds up Angus’ planner, pointing to the day. “He had a meeting scheduled with you today.”

Sterling looks at the date, his eyebrows furrowing. “Well, that’s… that’s right,” he says, “but he cancelled it so that he could spend the day with the three of you.” 

“He’s gone missing,” Magnus says, tucking the planner back in his bag. “We don’t have many leads.”

Sterling frowns. “Please, come sit,” he says, “Angus has been helping me out, and anything I can do to help you guys find him I will.”

They follow him, sitting in a few of the chairs that sit facing his desk. Sterling goes back around it, taking a seat behind the desk and shuffling through some papers.

“What were the two of you doing together?” Merle asks, beating Taako and Magnus to the question.

He sighs. “Angus was helping me investigate a possible underground crime ring operating out of Neverwinter,” he says, finding the paper he was looking for. He unfolds it to reveal a map. “We had tracked--”

“You had Angus investigating a crime ring?!” Magnus interrupts.

“Y-yes, but I assure you--”

“He’s just a kid!” Merle exclaims. 

“What right do you have to put him in danger like that?” Taako says at the same time.

Artemis Sterling is the most powerful man in the world, but that doesn’t stop him from being intimidated by the trio of heroes that are practically jumping down his throat. He raises his hands defensively. “Angus isn’t a kid anymore,” he says, “he’s more than capable of defending himself. Besides, I offered him security and he declined it. I assure you, I never meant to put him in any danger.” He points to a location on the map. “Angus had tracked a likely base of operations to an abandoned warehouse here, in the Blue Lake district. If they… if they have him, they likely brought him there.”

Taako doesn’t stop glaring at Artemis, but Magnus takes the map, looking over the location that he’d pointed out. It’s circled in red ink, and it doesn’t seem too far away. “Thank you,” he says, folding the map and putting it in his pocket as well. He looks to Taako and Merle. “Let’s go.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are uncharacteristically competent. The city of Neverwinter gets a little trampled.

They don’t wait for backup. They don’t even bother waiting for a ride from where they are to the warehouse. They just run, through the streets of Neverwinter and its Blue Lake district until they reach the location of the warehouse.

There’s a large fence around the property, with a very heavily padlocked gate. 

Magnus pulls a rope from his pack, wrapping it around his arm. “I’ve got this,” he says, quickly scaling the fence. He ties the rope to the top, allowing Merle and Taako to climb up after him with little difficulty. 

There’s very little that can motivate the trio to a point of undeniable competence, but the disappearance of Angus McDonald is definitely one of them.

They arrive at the warehouse in no time. The doors are wide open, and a few boxes are in the warehouse, a few more laying outside of it, but it’s largely cleared out. There’s a table that’s been knocked over just outside of it, playing cards scattered across the ground from the remnants of a hurriedly-abandoned game.

Taako, Magnus, and Merle step into the warehouse. Taako is looking around in one corner of the warehouse when he hears Magnus gasp.

“What is it?” Taako asks, hurrying across the room. Merle isn’t far behind.

Magnus points to the ground, where a pair of broken glasses sit, a cracked lense catching the light coming in from outside the warehouse.

Angus’ glasses.

The three of them are quiet for a long while, just trying to comprehend the fact that Angus’ glasses are lying broken on the floor. None of them are quite sure what it means. Taako feels sick, he’d never admit it out loud but he’s absolutely terrified that Angus is hurt.

Merle eventually bends down to pick the glasses up, handing them to Taako. “At least we know he was here now,” Merle says, his attempt at putting a positive spin on the situation failing miserably. Taako can barely look at the glasses as he takes them and tucks them into his pocket.  _ I’ll repair them later, _ he thinks.  _ Angus will need them when we find him. _

It’s because he’s looking away that he sees it-- a small piece of glossy paper laying on the ground a few feet away from the broken glasses.

He hurries over to it, forgetting to respond to Merle’s comment, and bends down to pick it up.

It’s the corner of a page of a book. The text along the top of it reads “uide to Neverwinter,” and there’s a few more words of text that don’t make sense out of context. Taako recognizes it almost immediately, it’s a tourist guide to the city that is familiar because it was a gift from the three of them. Taako holds the scrap up, turning to Magnus and Merle. “You guys remember the present we got Angus when he enrolled at this school?”

“The wooden duck?” Magnus asks.

“I gave him back the plastic sheriff's badge,” Merle says.

Taako shakes his head. “No, you idiots,” he says, waving the paper through the air. “We gave him a travel guide to Neverwinter, from the three of us, remember?”

“Oh  _ yeah,” _ Merle says, clearly having no idea what Taako is talking about. Taako sighs.

“You’re right,” Magnus says, coming over to examine the piece of paper. “And if he’s leaving pieces of it behind… He knew we’d come looking for him and he left us this to try to help us find him,” Magnus continues. He points a little distance away, where another small piece of glossy paper is sitting. “He left us a trail to follow.”

The three of them share a look, and Taako nods, and they take off running along the path of papers. 

Taako doesn’t even take a moment to consider what danger they might be rushing into. He’s fueled by his worry for Angus, his anger at whoever has taken him, and he doesn’t really care if they find themselves in danger. Let these criminals attack them, let them try. They’d find out very quickly not to mess with Taako. And especially not to mess with Angus.

-

The pieces of paper lead them to a loading dock, and for a minute Taako fears that the trail has gone cold when he doesn’t see another piece of paper anywhere in sight.

“Spread out,” Magnus suggests, “the wind might’ve moved them around. Look for any sign of him.”

They’re scarily efficient in their search, each taking a section of the open area and beginning to search for any more glossy slips of paper.

It’s Merle who spots the stone of farspeech laying on the ground. “Isn’t this Angus’s?” he calls out, holding it up so that Taako and Magnus can see it. 

“Y-yeah,” Magnus says, coming over and taking it from him. He turns it over in his hands a few times, and his finger hits a button on the side of it.

A recorded message begins to play.

“H-hello sirs,” Angus says at a low whisper from the stone. 

Taako is immediately alert, attentive as he stares down at the stone in Magnus’ hand. There’s a change in the other two, too, the moment they hear Angus’s voice.

“Or whoever else is finding this, I guess. I hope you’re able to find me… the people who took me have no idea I’m recording this message. I can’t see much, but they’ve got me in this big truck and I think it had a logo for the Fantasy Costco on the side of it.”

There’s a noise, and then silence for a little while. Taako gets scared and Merle reaches for the stone of farspeech, and then Angus begins to whisper again.

“I heard them talking about going north--- I think there’s an abandoned Fantasy Costco in the north part of the Blue Lakes district, that’s probably what they---” There’s a loud crash, and then the sound of an engine starting. Angus’s voice comes through the stone one last time, his tone full of urgency. “Please hurry, sirs.”

And the recording cuts out.

“We should--” Magnus begins.

“We need to get there fast,” Merle interjects.

Taako readies the Krebstar, beginning to cast a spell. “I’m already on it,” he says, as Garyl appears. 

“Yooo,” Garyl says, quickly noticing the three of them staring at him and realizing what Taako is expecting. “Woah, first of all, I’m not big enough--”

“That’s great but--” Merle begins at the same time, but Taako isn’t done.

“I know, hold on,” he says.

He casts enlarge on Garyl, a smile spreading across his face as Garyl grows to the size of a building. 

Taako grins. “Hop on boys.”

-

They arrive at the Fantasy Costco in record time. Admittedly, there’s a little damage to the city as quite a few people have to dive out of the way to avoid Garyl’s hooves as the gigantic binicorn tramples at full-speed through the city, but Taako isn’t worried about it. 

As Garyl skids to a stop in front of the Fantasy Costco, Magnus immediately notices the truck outside of it and points it out to the others. 

“It’s not running,” he whispers as they dismount Garyl. The giant binicorn disappears in a small puff of smoke as Taako dismisses him. “They’re either still inside or they changed vehicles.”

Taako nods. “I’ll go invisible and check on it,” he says, “you guys watch my back.”

Merle looks reluctantly at the large metal doors of the abandoned supercenter. “Be careful in there,” he says. Taako knows he means it.

“Shout if you need us,” Magnus says, “we’ll come running.” 

“I know,” Taako says, waving him off. He sets about casting Greater Invisibility.

“Just wait for our signal,” Magnus tells him, gesturing for Merle to follow him. The two of them hide behind the truck, and Magnus gives a thumbs up. 

Taako sneaks in through a gap in the doors of the Fantasy Costco, his eyes adjusting to the much dimmer light. Immediately, he knows that no one is in the store. They are too late, again.

He lets his invisibility fall away, poking his head back out through the doors. “Coast’s clear,” he calls out.

Magnus and Merle hurry over, pushing the doors open a little more. Merle casts light on a nearby crate, casting light throughout the dim store. None of them speak. They’re all getting more worried, they know that every minute that passes without them finding Angus is another minute that he’s in danger.

Magnus crosses the room, picking up a paper from the floor in the center of the store. His eyes widen as he looks it over. “Guys,” he calls. “I think Angus left us another message.”

It’s another page from their tour guide, but this time it’s a full page. Taako’s eyes widen as he sees the location.

“Chaos Stadium?” Merle asks. “That place is somehow involved in this?”

Magnus closes his hand in a fist. “Let’s go.”

He doesn’t need to tell Taako or Merle twice.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We backtrack. Angus lays down clues and reminisces.

Angus McDonald surveys his work, a smile spreading across his face. This really is starting out as the best birthday ever. Not only will he get to see his entire family later, he also gets to go about creating a mystery.

He’s made sure that his planner is obviously in sight-- he needs the three of them to go to Sterling’s. But other than that, he’s made his room complete chaos. It really does look like a fight has taken place in the room. Angus even throws his wand on the ground as an extra touch.

Closing the door to his room but not locking it, Angus sets out across the city of Neverwinter to the abandoned warehouse to lay down the next clue.

On his way, he sees Lucas, who is hurrying off campus. Lucas jumps when he sees Angus.

“Angus,” Lucas says, adjusting his coat.

“Hello, sir,” Angus says. “Are you going out?”

“Y-Yeah,” Lucas says. “I thought you were meeting Taako and them today.”

“Oh, yes,” Angus replies, smiling. He glances over Lucas’ shoulder at the cafe Barry always waits for him at, but there’s no sign of him. There’s no reason for them to watch Angus today. “I’m just grabbing a coffee before going back to my dorm to wait for them.”

“Well,” Lucas says, a little awkwardly. “I’ll see you-- I mean, I hope you have a good time with the boys.”

“Thank you, sir!” Angus waves as Lucas hurries off towards the station.

-

On his way to the warehouse, Angus stops in a bookstore to buy a copy of a book he already has in his pocket.

The clerk at the bookstore, who already recognizes Angus from the numerous times he’s bought books here, gives him a curious look as he buys a book titled “A Tourist’s Guide to Neverwinter,” but he simply smiles and pays her.

As he walks the rest of the way to the warehouse, Angus thinks back to the enrollment party Taako had thrown him when he was starting at the academy.

-

 

> “Ango!” Magnus exclaims as Angus steps into Taako’s living room. He throws his hand over Angus’s shoulder, ruffling up his hair with the other. “You’ve gotten taller!”
> 
> “Th--”
> 
> “Agnes!” Taako calls, poking his head out of the kitchen. He’s wearing an apron, a grin on his face as he sees Angus. “I made your favorites!”
> 
> “Than-” Angus begins again.
> 
> “Oh, it’s the boy detective,” Merle says, coming up beside them. “Look at you, a superstar.”
> 
> “Thank you sirs--” Angus can barely get a full sentence out. Magnus drags him into the kitchen, where Taako and Lup are working on various pots and dishes.
> 
> “Everyone else is getting here later,” Magnus explains, sitting Angus down in a chair.
> 
> Angus hasn’t even had time to take his coat off. He looks up at Taako, Magnus, and Merle, who are bearing down on top of him with grins on their faces. “Um,” Angus says, “did you… need something, sirs?”
> 
> Magnus ignores Angus’ question, just dumps what looks like a small, wrapped book on Angus’ lap.
> 
> “Is this…” Angus looks between the three of them. “Is this for me?”
> 
> Magnus gestures to the package, nodding enthusiastically. “We all got you our own gifts, but we wanted to give you this from the three of us before everyone else gets here,” he explains.
> 
> “We can’t have you getting lost,” Taako adds, watching expectantly as Angus unwraps the book.
> 
> “It’s a… tourism guide?” Angus asks, turning it over in his hands, inspecting it.
> 
> “Well you could look a little more grateful,” Merle says. He’s joking, but Angus rapidly shakes his head.
> 
> “No I…” he grins. “Thank you, sirs! Maybe we can visit these locations together!”
> 
> Magnus makes a noise, Merle stifles a laugh, and Taako ruffles Angus’s hair. “We’ll see, kiddo,” he says.

_-_

Angus treasures his guide to the city, even if he’s already pretty accustomed to it. It’s one of the most thoughtful gifts the three of them had given him.

He reaches the gate that runs around the warehouse, producing a ring of keys from his pocket and unlocking it behind him.

He’d considered hiring some people to play criminals at the warehouse, but he’d quickly dismissed the idea when he thought about the actors encountering Taako, Merle, and Magnus. He wasn’t too sure paid actors would escape with their lives.

So instead, he surveys the abandoned warehouse alone. Most of the preparation is already done, all Angus has to do is plant some playing cards, some scraps of paper, and an old pair of glasses he broke during a soccer game.

He’d broken the glasses for good reason, he remembers, smiling to himself as the cracked lense catches the light.

-

> When Angus McDonald joined the soccer team, he hadn’t expected that they would end up playing in the finals.
> 
> He certainly hadn’t expected to become one of the team’s key players in said finals.
> 
> But, as he stands with his team, waiting to go on the field and play, he feels… grateful. Years ago he would never had expected to be able to be standing here, with friends, living a normal life. But he was, and it was thanks to the actions of the people he was now able to call his family.
> 
> He wonders, for a minute, if Taako, Magnus, and Merle would show up. He’d sent them invitations, but they were all so busy.
> 
> He’s shaken out of his thoughts by one of his teammates, who claps him on the shoulder. “You ready, Angus?” he asks, grinning. “We’re all counting on you.”
> 
> Angus smiles. He has his team to support him. And he knows that even if his mentors don’t come, they’ll be supporting him in spirit. “Let’s do this,” he says, as the Academy of Arcane Sciences soccer team makes their way onto the field.
> 
> The crowds cheer as the team takes their positions, their opponents mirroring them. Angus doesn’t have a moment to look up at the crowds to look for his family, he has to focus on the game in front of him.
> 
> The first time a pass gets kicked to Angus, he hears something in the stands that makes him freeze for just a moment.
> 
> “Whoo-hoo, Ango!!” he hears Magnus call.
> 
> “You can do it, kid,” Merle cries.
> 
> “That’s my boy!!” Taako yells.
> 
> His eyes find the three of them in the crowd.
> 
> Magnus is wearing a soda hat, waving a large foam finger with Angus’s number on it, and holding up one end of a banner. Merle is peeking over the middle of the banner, slightly less enthusiastic in his cheering, but Angus notices that he’s swapped his eyepatch out for one of Angus’s team colors and he’s wearing a tee-shirt supporting the team. Taako is on the other end, wearing a jersey that matches Angus’, his position as the headmaster of one of the schools that the Academy of Arcane Sciences had beaten to get to the finals forgotten as he waves a flag, also emblazoned with Angus’s number, through the air. He’s swapped his normal hat out for one of the appropriate team colors as well. The banner reads “Go Angus!!” with a large drawing of Angus’s face which appears to have been drawn by Magnus in crayon.
> 
> The three of them look like the most enthusiastic sports dads in the whole wide world.
> 
> Angus is so startled to see them that he takes his attention away from the game for just long enough.
> 
> The ball hits Angus straight in the face, knocking his glasses some distance away across the field. Angus grits his teeth as the world goes blurry, seeing the ball bounce to the ground at his feet as he hears the crowd gasp.
> 
> He ignores the stinging in the side of his face, and the fact that he’ll likely have a black eye by the end of the game. Instead, he begins to run with the ball, taking advantage of the opposing team’s shock to slip past a few of their defenders.
> 
> Being unable to see is not going to stop Angus McDonald from making Taako, Magnus, and Merle proud.
> 
> -
> 
> Angus stands, panting, as a loud horn announces the end of the game. At half time, Angus had retrieved his cracked glasses and iced his eye just a little, refusing to be benched for the rest of the game. There was no way he wasn’t seeing this to the end.
> 
> And it payed off. The Academy of Arcane Sciences has become the winners of the first inter-academy soccer tournament.
> 
> The crowd is loving it. Angus’ team rushes around him.
> 
> “You were awesome,” one of them exclaims.
> 
> Angus wipes at the sweat that is dripping down into his eyes, the cracked lense of his glasses making it difficult to make out who is saying what.
> 
> He is easily able to make out the fact that Taako, Magnus, and Merle are pushing their way through the team towards him. He sees Taako’s hat above the rest of them, and Magnus stands a head taller than Angus’s teammates.
> 
> He doesn’t question how they’ve gotten on the field, instead greeting them as they reach him with a hearty “hello, sirs!”
> 
> Magnus lifts Angus up onto his shoulders with a wide grin. It doesn’t seem to matter that angus has grown a lot in the past year— Magnus has little trouble. “That was awesome kiddo,” he says as he raises Angus above the rest of his teammates. The crowd cheers.
> 
> “Yeah, you really made ol’ Taako proud of you,” Taako says, patting Angus’s leg. He can’t reach any higher.
> 
> Merle can’t even reach Angus’s foot. “I thought that ball was going to get the best of you for a minute,” he says, “but you really showed it.”
> 
> Angus McDonald has a black eye, is barely able to see, and feels like he’s about to fall over in exhaustion. But he is also the happiest boy in the world, as he raises the trophy that the referee passes him above his head and Magnus takes him on a victory lap, the rest of his team following and the crowd going absolutely wild.

-

Angus finishes laying the pieces of the book in a path to the loading dock, taking his stone of farspeech from his pocket. There’s a pre-recorded message on it, and he drops it a little ways away from the last piece of paper.

He isn’t sure how Taako, Magnus, and Merle will make it from the warehouse to the Fantasy Costco, but he’s already paid the owner of a transport wagon to wait around nearby and be ready for them.

He really has tried to think of everything.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus realizes he might’ve made a mistake in making it seem like he was kidnapped. The doors to Chaos Stadium’s arena swing open.

Angus is about to walk into Chaos Stadium after setting his clue in the Fantasy Costco when the ground begins to shake. 

He turns, his eyes going wide as he sees the two rainbow horns of Garyl poking over the city skyline. As Garyl charges down the street, Angus sees Taako, Merle, and Magnus on his back through a gap in the buildings.

He nearly falls backwards as he watches the scene unfolding across the city from him. 

Angus McDonald had accounted for a lot of things. He’d made his clues obvious so that it was impossible for the three of them to miss them. He’d enlisted the help of Artemis Sterling to push them in the right direction-- and left little room to go wrong along the way. He’d made the mystery rather short as well, so that they’d still make it in time for the party. He’d even accounted for his mentor’s inability to complete missions without a few casualties, specifically not enlisting the help of anyone to play criminals. 

He hadn’t accounted for just  _ how _ worked up Taako, Magnus, and Merle would get over the thought of Angus being hurt. He realizes now, as he watches Garyl barrel around a corner, that he definitely should’ve made the mystery something else. 

There’s no changing it now, though. He bites his lip as he pulls himself back to his feet and winces as a crash echoes from where Garyl is nearly finishing his run to the Fantasy Costco. He’s definitely going to have to apologize to Lord Artemis Sterling for this. 

-

Angus has a while, sitting alone in the ring, to think about things. 

He knows that Taako, Magnus, and Merle care about him. He’d always known, even as they made fun of him (and honestly sometimes were flat out rude to him), that they cared about him. He remembers them telling the manager of the Chaos Stadium that he was “their boy,” once, and he remembers how proud they would get of him when he pulled things off. 

He remembers Magnus handing him his grandfather’s pocket knife as they parted ways during the Day of Story and Song, Magnus’s instructions to bring it back to him reminding him how much Magnus really did care about him. He remembers Taako, making sure Angus knew that he cared, too.

He remembers, as he fought beside Lup and Barry and everyone else, the tiny pauses in the enemy’s assault that gave him time to worry about how Taako, Magnus, and Merle were doing.

He remembers the joy of being hoisted onto Magnus’s shoulders after the final battle, calling out to the crowd that they had won, that it was over.

And he remembers more than that. 

He remembers not having to wonder about where he would go after the battle-- Taako had given him a place to stay until Lucas’s academy opened. 

He remembers Merle, who, after seeing Angus dancing at one of Taako’s weekly dinners, took Angus under his wing and taught him how to dance. (“ _ Unacceptable,” _ Merle had said, “let the master teach you how to  _ really  _ dance.”) 

He remembers Magnus, bringing a dog or two with him every week so that Angus could play with them. A while after the Day of Story and Song, Magnus had begun to teach Angus how to carve wood. Angus was horrible at it, but Magnus didn’t seem to care, showing off Angus’s awkwardly carved duck to everyone he saw with a wide, proud grin on his face for weeks.

He remembers Taako, telling him that he wasn’t allowed to miss dinner every saturday, even when he was gone at school. Taako, in the time that Angus stayed with him, offered him advanced classes in both magic and cooking. Angus excelled at magic, though he does remember that Taako quickly learned to not leave him alone in the kitchen.

And as Angus sits by himself in the middle of the ring, just waiting, he smiles, because he’s thinking of his family. 

-

Halfway across town, but rapidly moving closer, Taako, Magnus, and Merle are barreling through the streets in the abandoned truck they found at the Fantasy Costco.

Taako is sitting on the far passenger side, holding his hat tightly to his head as he uses his Krebstar to levitate various obstacles out of the way.

He’s thinking back to a time not long after the Day of Story and Song, when Angus got the flu. It’s a long time ago now.

-

> Kravitz wanders into the kitchen, coming up behind Taako, who is managing a giant pot of bubbling soup and a kettle of near-boiling water, one hand occupied with a spoon and the other with his Krebstar. Kravitz has to duck out of the way of a teacup that comes flying across the kitchen.
> 
> “Woah, Taako,” Kravitz says, looking over his shoulder. “I know Angus has the flu but you definitely don’t need to do all of this.”
> 
> Taako spins past him, a tea bag floating into the cup from who-knows-where as the kettle begins to boil. He looks tired, his hair is in a ponytail instead of a braid and he’s wearing his apron over his pajamas. He’s stayed up all night with Angus, keeping an eye on the young detective. “The kid is tiny, Krav, he needs all the help he can get to get over this. There’s coffee on the table, just keep out of the way.”
> 
> As Taako continues to move around the kitchen in a whirlwind of floating ingredients and utensils, Kravitz takes a step back and just watches him. “You know,” he says, taking a sip of his coffee. “I think it’s sweet that you’re so worried for him.”
> 
> Taako ignores him as he spoons out a bowl of soup from the pot and sets it on a tray next to the cup of tea and two pieces of toast he’s made for Angus, if he can stomach them. He thinks, for just a second, how lucky he is to be so worried over something as mundane as Angus having the flu. It certainly would’ve been the least of their worries a few months ago.
> 
> But now isn’t then, and Taako unties his apron, throwing it to Kravitz as he takes the tray in his hands. “Take the soup off the burner,” he says. “I’ll come clean up later.”
> 
> He makes his way to the guest room, which has become Angus’s room until he goes off to school. He pushes the door open with his back, crossing the room to stand next to Angus’s bed.
> 
> Angus is half-asleep, his eyes fluttering open as Taako sets the tray down on the table next to the bed. He groans softly, coughing a few times as the groan catches in his throat.
> 
> “Hey, kiddo,” Taako says, resting the back of his hand against Angus’s forehead. His fever hasn’t gone down. “Merle’s on his way over, he’ll heal you up good when he gets here, don’t worry. I mean, I think he’ll be able to.” Taako’s joke falls a little short. He feels helpless. “In the meantime, you can enjoy some patented Taako soup, guaranteed to make you feel better.”
> 
> Angus looks up at him, slowly sitting up in bed. He’s still half asleep. “Soup?” he rasps. 
> 
> Taako hands Angus his glasses, helping him sit the rest of the way up. “Just a little something I whipped up,” Taako says. 
> 
> Angus manages to eat half the bowl of soup and keep it down. Taako sits with him for a while after he finishes eating, reading one of his favorite detective novels to him. Angus McDonald was still just a kid, after all, even if he had been a large part of them saving the world. He deserved someone to take care of him when he was sick, and if that meant Taako had to read one of these novels, he would.
> 
> When he’s satisfied that Angus is asleep, Taako puts the book to the side and heads out to the kitchen. As he pulls open the door, it creaks, and Angus shifts in bed behind him. “Get some rest, kiddo,” Taako says quietly as he pulls the door open. “I’ll be back to check on you in a bit.”
> 
> “Thanks, dad,” Angus murmurs under his breath. 
> 
> Taako practically drops the tray. It doesn’t matter that Angus has said it in a sickness-induced stupor, the name still makes his stomach do a backflip. 
> 
> He turns back to Angus, but Angus is curled up on his side, fast asleep, unaware of how much his little mental slip means to Taako.

_ - _

Merle is between them, the map that Sterling gave them spread out on his lap. He’s shouting directions, squinting at the tiny roads on the map.

As he shouts out “left! No wait, make a right here! Here, here!” Merle thinks back to the unexpected addition to one of his Extreme Teen Adventures that had made him come to appreciate the boy detective a lot more.

-

> “Dad, it’s time,” Mavis calls, poking her head through the door. Merle is busy strapping the last bits of his gear on, and he turns back to her. 
> 
> “I’m coming, sweetie,” he says. As the two of them make their way to the base of operations for the Extreme Teen Adventures, they hear Mookie loudly talking to the small crowd of participants.
> 
> Mavis shakes her head as Mookie proclaims that none of them have anything to worry about with him there, and hurries onto the stage to get things organized again.
> 
> Just as Merle begins to walk up to the stage, he sees Angus in the front row, clutching his wand tightly in one hand and staring up at Mavis and Mookie with a large grin on his face.
> 
> Angus notices Merle watching him, and stands up, hurrying over to where Merle is. He has to crouch down, now, to whisper to Merle.
> 
> “Hello, sir!” Angus exclaims. He gestures towards the stage. “I hope you don’t mind if I tag along on this adventure. I always wanted to come along and--”
> 
> “Well kid--” Merle begins, but Angus interrupts his interruption.
> 
> “Mookie was excited to show me what you guys did here, and I think there’s a lot I can learn from you, sir. Taako is a good teacher, but I know you do amazing work here and I think you can provide me with a lot of experiences that will make me a better adventurer in the future, sir!”
> 
> Merle sighs. He had, initially, planned to dismiss Angus, tell him that this was for kids who had never adventured before, not for someone like Angus. But Angus’s praise makes him feel oddly proud, not only of his own abilities, but of the boy detective. He’s gotten awfully good at getting what he wants.
> 
> “Sure, kid,” Merle says, clapping him on the shoulder. “But you better be prepared to learn from a master adventurer.”
> 
> “Oh, of course sir,” Angus says, holding up a notepad. “I plan to learn a great deal!”

_ - _

Magnus is in the driver's seat. He glances at Merle, his eyebrows drawing together as he shouts back “well, which way is it?” over the cacophony outside. 

“Right-- it’s right,” Merle confirms. Magnus veers to the right, accelerating heavily as Chaos Stadium comes into view in the distance.

Magnus doesn’t care about anything right now other than getting Angus back safely.

As he presses the gas pedal down just a little harder than he would dare any other day, it’s the glimpses of a life that he never thought he’d have that he sees in Angus that are spurring him on.

-

> Sometimes, as Magnus watches Angus play with one of his dogs from under a tree in Taako’s backyard, he thinks, for just a moment, of how in another life Angus could’ve been his and Julia’s son. 
> 
> Not realistically, of course, but sometimes he sees it in the young boy’s resolve, in his unconditional support of the people around him, in his strong will to do the right thing. There are moments when he sees Julia in the way Angus laughs, or in the way he drapes himself over the arms of a chair when he curls up with a book, and sometimes it’s almost too much for him to bear, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. 
> 
> When he thinks about what it would’ve been like to be a father, he thinks about the first thing Angus ever carved. 
> 
> -
> 
> It is, by all standards, barely recognizable as a duck. But Magnus grabs it from Angus, who is trying his hardest to keep it out of his mentor’s reach, and shows it off to everyone. Magnus is proud beyond belief that he’s been able to teach Angus something.
> 
> Sometimes he worries that Taako is more influential on Angus, because Angus is learning magic from him, but seeing the duck that Angus creates under Magnus’ watchful eye reminds him that he has done something for the boy detective, too.
> 
> He puts it by his bed. It quickly becomes one of his most prized possessions.
> 
> -
> 
> There are many more memories with the young detective that mean the world to Magnus. It’s not that he doesn’t have a memory that he treasures with Angus. He has a collection, and he refuses to let it stop growing. 

-

Magnus fights back tears as he swerves around a merchant’s cart. There’s one thing he knows for sure. He’s already lost too many members of his family, there’s no way he’s losing Angus.

He slams on the breaks at the foot of the stairs leading up to Chaos Stadium. The three of them exchange glances and hop out of the truck, taking the stairs at a run. 

They’ve passed the point of hesitating, of thinking. All of them, even Taako, have reached the point of acting with abandon, of charging ahead into whatever they need to face. 

Magnus is the first to make it through the doors, slamming through them with Taako and Merle on his heels.

A slightly startled security guard at the front desk sees them coming, his eyes going wide.

“Oh,  _ shit, _ ” they hear him say. 

-

Angus hears a commotion outside, and then the doors of the arena bang open, the security guard charging past him. “They’re here,” the guard calls as he runs out another door.

He turns to face the entrance to the arena, readying himself for the encounter he’s about to have.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They’re reunited.

There’s no sign of the man who had been working at the desk as Taako, Magnus, and Merle burst into the empty main arena of Chaos Stadium.

Instead, standing in the middle of the ring and illuminated by a single spotlight is Angus McDonald, a wide grin on his face as he sees the three of them. 

The moment Taako sees him, he breaks into a run towards the ring. Magnus isn’t far behind, and Merle hurries along as well, nearly tumbling down a flight of stairs in his rush to keep up.

“Hello, sirs!” Angus exclaims. “I knew you’d solve my mystery! I don’t know if you guys remember our last time here, but it was also my birthday and it’s one of my favorite--”

He’s cut off by Taako throwing his arms around him, the rest of his sentence muffled by Taako’s shoulder. 

“Never do that again, you hear me Angus?” Taako says, not bothering to hide the fact that he’s crying. Magnus reaches them, pulling them both into a tight bear hug, Merle standing on his tiptoes to wrap his arms around Angus as well.

“I’m okay, sir,” Angus says, a little taken aback by the reception he’s getting. “It was all pretend-- a fake mystery for you guys to solve. I’m fine, see?” He tries to pull away, but none of them let go. “Sirs?”

“You’re okay,” he hears Magnus whisper through his tears. Taako is crying, too, though quietly, and Merle still hasn’t moved back. 

“I’m sorry,” Angus says, “I thought giving you guys a mystery to solve would make you happy, I didn’t---”

The three of them pull back. Taako gives Angus a furious glance. “If you think the thought of losing you would make us  _ happy,  _ Angus--” Angus is a little scared, for just a moment, that Taako really is mad at him. But the elf surprises him. “--then clearly we’ve done something wrong.”

“Yeah, we might tease you, but it’s just that,” Merle says. “Teasing.”

Magnus wipes at his tears. “Angus… do you really think we wouldn’t be terrified at the thought of you going missing.”

“N-no, I, I didn’t---” Angus feels horrible. He never thought of it that way. He would’ve been overjoyed if someone had gone through the trouble of setting up a mystery like this for him, and he hadn’t even considered that they’d get so worked up over it.

Magnus notices the look on Angus’s face, putting a hand on Taako’s shoulder to calm the still-angry elf. 

“Angus,” Magnus says. He holds out a hand to help Angus up from where their hug knocked him down. “Listen to me. The three of us… we care about you, Angus. I’m so, so proud of you, and I know Taako and Merle are too. We don’t always do a good job of showing it, and we certainly aren’t always the easiest to have around, but you’re our  _ family,  _ Angus, and it’s not easy to break a bond like that.” 

Taako sighs. “I’m sorry,” he admits, not looking Angus in the eyes. “I haven’t always done the best job of showing you that I care.”

Magnus and Merle stare at him for just an instant, almost surprised by the fact that he is, for once, being sincere. Merle sighs. “Me too, kid.”

Angus looks around at them. “I-- I’m sorry, sirs,” he says. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I promise I didn’t.” He shakes his head. “I’m really sorry, sirs, I thought a mystery would make you happy because it would’ve made me happy and it was something I could do for you even though--”

Magnus picks him up in a hug again. “It’s okay,” he says. “You just scared us a little.”

“A lot,” Merle adds.

Magnus shoots him a glare.

-

It takes a while for the four of them to calm down. By the time they’re leaving Chaos Stadium, the four of them are joking and laughing. Angus smiles as he walks with his mentors, glad that they weren’t seriously upset at him.

“Where are we going now, sirs?” Angus asks as he shuts the door to the stadium behind them.

Taako, Merle, and Magnus exchange glances. They’d  _ forgotten  _ about the surprise party.

“Uh--” Magnus says. “To the station!”

Angus fakes surprise. “The station, sir?”

“Y-yeah, the station!” Magnus confirms. He jabs Taako in the arm, giving him a look that says  _ call Lup. _

Taako grips his stone of farspeech tightly where it is inside his pocket, nodding imperceptibly at Magnus. 

“The station,” he says. “I’ve just gotta make a call, kiddo, and then we can be on our way.”

Taako steps a little bit away, pulling out his stone and calling Lup. She picks up almost immediately. “Taako? What’s going on? Is Angus okay?”

Taako sighs a little. “Yeah, the kid’s good,” he says. “It was a false alarm, sort of.”

“A false alarm?” Lup asks.

“Yep,” Taako replies. “He had a surprise of his own for us,” he continues. “Listen, we’re on our way back. Get things ready, you know the drill.”

Lup hesitates for a moment. “Well,” she says. “If Angus is okay. We’ll finish up the preparations on this end.”

Taako smiles. “Don’t fuck up my cake, Lulu,” he says lovingly.

“I won’t, doofus,” she says back. “Get the kid here safe, okay?”

Taako nods to himself as he heads back over to the group. “I will,” he says, and he means it.

-

When they get off the train at Taako’s station, Merle almost forgets to blindfold Angus until Magnus nudges him and points to Angus. 

Merle’s eyes widen as he remembers, and he mouths ‘oh,  _ yeah _ ,” as he steps up behind Angus-- who is talking to Taako.

They only get a  _ little _ resistance from the detective as they take his glasses and blindfold him, as Angus quickly realizes that this must be part of the surprise they are planning for him. He tries to hide his smile as he says “this doesn’t seem fair, sirs.”

Taako puts a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, kid,” he says, leading Angus outside to where they’ve left a wagon parked. 

The drive to Taako’s house is short, Angus nearly talking their ears off with questions as he continues to pretend he doesn’t know that there’s some sort of surprised planned-- “where are we going, sirs? Why do I need to be blindfolded? Is this to do with my birthday?” 

Finally, they pull up in front of Taako’s house, and Magnus helps Angus down from the wagon. Taako puts a hand on his shoulder again, and Merle and Magnus rush ahead inside.

With a smile, Taako guides Angus to his front door, untying the blindfold and handing Angus back his glasses. He doesn’t give Angus any time to get his bearings before throwing open the door for him.

Angus McDonald doesn’t have a second to look up at Taako before his attention is drawn by the crowd of people standing in the entryway of Taako’s house. And, as they all shout surprise, as he sees Magnus and Merle and Lup and Davenport and Barry and Kravitz and Avi and  _ everyone _ , his friends and his mentors and the people he considers his family, Angus’s eyes fill with tears. 

He looks up at Taako and then around at the people he loves and smiles a big, tearful smile as he thinks about how he is so incredibly lucky to have a family like this one.


End file.
